Fish tanks are a common decorative fixture in many homes and businesses. Fish tanks provide a visually pleasing aesthetic as well as a soothing sound created by their water oxygenators. All fish tanks require a certain amount of maintenance in order to keep the environment within healthy and the fish residing in the tank in good condition. one of the most common forms of fish tank maintenance is simply cleaning the tank. Of course, cleaning the fish tank requires that the fish residing within be temporarily removed and stored in alternative tank while their primary fish tank is being cleaned. To catch and remove the fish from the fish tank, a wide range of fishnets designed specifically for that purpose have been developed and produced. These fishnets are also used in pet stores when a person purchases a new fish for their fish tank. The pet store worker must capture the often specifically chosen fish for the customer and secure that fish in a bag for transport to the customers fish tank. This can be extremely difficult with a traditional one headed fishnet as fish can be particularly agile. This difficulty is caused by the design of traditional fishnets which comprise a handle and one net head. This design often requires the person attempting to catch the fish to be very quick and or ambush the fish when it is least expecting to be captured. This can be both frustrating and time consuming for the person as they may wish to move on to other tasks instead of trying to catch a quick fish all day long. Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to create an apparatus which facilitates the swift and easy capturing of fish in a fish tank. The present invention utilizes a dual headed design that is attached to a pair of articulated tongs capable of opening and closing. Additionally, the present invention has a side skirt net which closes off 3 sides of the net end of the apparatus in addition to the two sides already netted by the dual net heads. This configuration makes sure that only one side (the front) of the six sided net end is open, closing off any route of escape for the fish, making it very easy for a user to catch fish by simply lowering the net end directly down around the fish and closing the apparatus, allowing easy removal of the fish from the tank.
There are several inventions which have been designed with similar objectives; such as U.S. Pat. No. 7,644,532. The apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,644,532 is similar to the present invention in that the disclosed apparatus also utilizes a double headed fish net which is articulated to open and close. However, this is where the similarities end. The patent disclosure utilizes a scissor like design to allow the user to open and close the net end of the apparatus. The present invention utilizes a tong structure which possesses a pivot at the far end of the tong assembly as well as a locking mechanism to lock the present invention in the closed position. The tong design has several advantages over the scissor design of the patent disclosure including swifter and easier opening and closing of the net end as well as easy storage due to the locking mechanism which keeps the present invention closed and compact.
The locking tong design is obviously well established by many patents such as U.S. Pat. No. 7,311,344. The patent disclosure is a pair of tongs for serving food which also possesses a locking mechanism. This design is conceptually very similar to the present invention. This biggest difference between the patent disclosure and the present invention is the fact that the present invention takes the basic locking tong concept and applies it to a completely different and non obvious use. With the help of additional components, namely the five sided dual net head, the present invention is an effective fish catching apparatus that utilizes the basic tong design to allow for easy articulation of the apparatus for transition between the open and closed positions. Additionally, the present invention does utilize a very different locking mechanism which is much closer in design to U.S. Pat. No. 5,199,756. The locking mechanism in the patent disclosure is a shaped piece which physically blocks the tongs from opening; this is very similar to the locking mechanism utilized in the present invention. While the locking mechanism utilized in the present invention may not be a very novel concept it is being used for the non obvious application of keeping a fishnet closed so that the fish cannot escape as a result of user error. The locking mechanism of the present invention is also used for the original purpose of keeping the apparatus in the closed position, thus, keeping the apparatus compact so it may be easily stored.
Other prior art such as the extremely similar disclosures of U.S. Pat. No. 4,272,906 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,908 again have similar objectives as the present invention. Both patent disclosures are designed to facilitate the capture of fish in a fish tank, and both have only one opening in the net head. both disclosures provide a way to quickly close the one opening, thus trapping the fish within the net head. However, the overall design of both disclosures does not differ much from the design of a standard single headed fishnet and as such are not much more effective at capturing fish. The modifications present on both disclosures server simply to enclose the fish in the net which does facilitate brining the fish to the surface of the tank more easily, as the fish cannot escape the net, but does not facilitate the initial capture of the fish. The present invention is clearly different from both disclosures as the present invention utilizes the five sided dual headed net and tong design to facilitate the swift and easy capture of the fish as well as easing the transition to the surface of the tank by allowing the net to be locked closed by the locking mechanism in the tongs.
In summary, the present invention is a drastic improvement upon the prior art and accomplishes this by using non-obvious combinations of existing concepts and several novel concepts to create the apparatus that is the present invention.